Sideways and backways is the way forward as Meath falter in decider

Donegal staged a late show at Croke Park this evening to win the NFL Div 2 final with a 1-17 to 1-15 success against Meath.

Terms like street-wise and naive could be applied to Donegal and Meath respectively.

The Ulster side gave a display in the closing 10 minutes that a Serie A (Italian League) side of the 1970s or 1980s would have been 
proud of while Meath just couldn't get the ball in the same period.

This was an open and entertaining game for about an hour as Meath dictated and reeled off the scores, but once Donegal hit the front in the 58th minute (1-16 to 1-14) it signalled the end of the football as a spectacle.

Backways, sideways, keep possession - that was what Donegal did for the remainder and they were successful enough to grind out the victory with  both Darragh Campion and Graham Reilly missing point chances for Meath that, if converetd, would have forced the Ulster side to play football again.

Meath also lost Shane Gallagher to aviodable cards - a yellow for a needless challenge and a black for a similar offence as the Royals finished with 14.

If lessons are learned it will have been a worthwhile experience and it's not a costly defeat as promotion to Div 1 was achieved as table-toppers.

Prior to backways and sideways and anyway but forward approach by Donegal this was a good open game.

Bryan Menton had Meath in front from a point after only 30 seconds, but soon after Michael Murphy had Donegal on terms when he pointed a free.

Meath then went on a scoring spree and reeled off 1-5 without reply to lead by 1-6 to 0-1 after 13 minutes.
Mickey Newman sent over three points (one free) with Shane McEntee and Ben Brennan from an opportunist effort sending over while Thomas O'Reilly finished to the net.

Donegal then got back into contention with well-worked points from Oisin Gallen, Jamie Brennan (two), Niall O'Donnell and Murphy (free) with Bryan McMahon keeping Meath ticking over.

Newman then had 'point' ruled out by Hawkeye but McMahon sent over to compensate as Meath continued to pose serious questions.

Jason McGee and Oisin Gallen claimed a point each for Donegal before Newman's goal was correctly ruled out for a square infringemnt, but the Royal County finished on the front foot with Cillain O'Sullivan and Thomas O'Reilly sending over for a 1-10 to 0-8 interval advantage.

Second-half points from Mickey Newman (two), Barry Dardis, Graham Reilly and Cillain O'Sullivan (74 mins) was a paltry return for Meath who also saw a Dardis goal chance skim the outside of the Donegal post early in that second-half.

 In fairness to Donegal, they kept picking off the points when they had to and then got the goal that signalled the end of the game as a spectacle and had Meath supporters booing in the closing stages.

Donegal – S Patton; P McGrath, B McCole, E (Ban) Gallagher; D O Baoill, L McLoone, R McHugh; H McFadden, S McMenamin; N O'Donnell (0-2), J McGee (0-2), C McGonagle; O Gallen (0-4), M Murphy (0-7), J Brennan (1-2). Subs – N McGee for McCole 13 mins, E Doherty for McLoone half-time, M Langan for McGonagle 43m, E McHugh for O Baoill 54m, FMcGlynn for R McHugh 70m.

Meath - Andrew Colgan; Seamus Lavin, Conor McGill, Shane Gallagher; James McEntee, Donal Keogan, Ronan Ryan; Bryan Menton (0-1), Shane McEntee (0-1); Cillian O’Sullivan (0-2), Ben Brennan (0-1), Bryan McMahon (0-2); Barry Dardis (0-1), Michael Newman (0-5), Thomas O’Reilly (1-1).  Subs - Graham Reilly for McMahon 34 mins, Darragh Campion for Ben Brennan 43m,James Conlon for T O'Reilly 64m, Gavin McCoy for S McEntee 67m.